Pocono Mountain Charter School decides to dismiss principal

A controversial hire for principal at the Pocono Mountain Charter School is no longer with the school.

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By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

poconorecord.com

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

A controversial hire for principal at the Pocono Mountain Charter School is no longer with the school.

Jeffrey C. McCreary, the school's principal since the start of the 2011-12 school year, has been let go by the school's board of trustees after officials said he lost his principal certification stemming from a 2011 criminal theft charge in Scranton.

School officials took McCreary out of the Tobyhanna school March 26 after they learned the state had denied an appeal to preserve his certification.

"He doesn't work for the school anymore," school spokesman Ken Kilpatrick said about McCreary. "It was the state's decision, and we'll abide by that. If he's not a certified principal, he can't work for the school as a principal."

Kilpatrick said a new principal has been named, but that person's identity has not been released yet and that the person will start next week.

The state's Professional Standards and Practices Commission, a division of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, last fall filed a claim against McCreary that his principal certification should be revoked, according to school lawyer Daniel Fennick.

The commission is in charge of oversight and enforcement of the professional educator discipline system, according to its website.

Pennsylvania Department of Education Press Secretary Tim Eller said the state could provide no information on McCreary.

The commission filed the claim, because of a 2011 conviction stemming from McCreary's theft of more than $87,000 from a private administrator fund while working as an elementary principal in the Scranton School District. The theft was to feed a gambling habit, police said at the time.

Police charged him with felony theft in the spring of 2011, but he pleaded the charges down to two misdemeanors in December 2011.

In between those two events, McCreary was hired by the charter school as its principal in August 2011. School officials knew about the charges, but said at the time they were comfortable hiring him anyway.

His one-year contract was renewed to work as the principal for the 2012-13 school year.

However, Fennick said the Professional Standards and Practices Commission thought the charges rose to the point that McCreary should lose his principal certification.

McCreary appealed and was allowed to keep working, because the commission's ruling was under appeal. He lost his appeal in Commonwealth Court in late March, Fennick said, and had to be let go from the school.

"You can't be principal if you're not certified," Fennick said. "We were hoping (the commission's claim) wouldn't be filed. He committed a crime, he paid the price, he made restitution, he served his sentence. We're not in any way defending what he did, but what he did was not something that impacted on his ability to be an effective principal."